Machine fob backing books



F. P. HILL MACHINE FOR BACKING BOOKS.

APPLICATION FILED 050.221.1915.

1 1 95,679 Patented Aug. 22, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

F. P. HILL MACHINE FOR BACKING BOOKS.

APPLICATION FILED 05c. 28, I915.

Patented Aug. 22, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

FREDERICK I. HILL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

MACHINE FOR BACKING BOOKS.

Application filed December 28, 1915.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FREDERICK P. HILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Backing Books, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in machines for rounding the backs of books in the course of their manufacture; and it relates especially to a particular machine, now in more or less extensive use for the purpose, involving the general construction and manner of operation set forth in Letters Patent of the United States No. 372,128, dated October 25, 1887.

The object of my invention is to materially augment the operating capacity of the machine by avoiding the impact strains to which it is subjected in operation and which tend to disorganize the mechanism and impair the durability of the machine when run at high speed. This I accomplish,

generally stated, by providing a shock-ab-.

so-rber to take the impact-strains exerted at the opposite ends of the stroke of the oscillating member in carrying a book, fed to it, to the rounding backing block and returning to receive another book to be thus carried.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a view in vertical sectional elevation of the machine of the aforesaid patent, showing substantially the same construction or sufficient thereof for a ready understanding, from the description hereafter contained, of the operation of my improvement with which the figure shows the machine to be provided; Fig. 2 is an enlarged section on the irregular line 22, Fig. 1, showing the preferred construction of shock-absorber for my purpose, and Fig. 3 is a section on line 3, Fig. 2.

The mechanism for gripping a book to be acted on, shown as a lower feed-roller a and an upper vertically reciprocating feedroller 5; that for taking the book from the feed-rollers, shown as an oscillating head 6 carrying a reciprocating gripping-member 7 cooperating with its upper end; and that for rounding the back of the book shown as a concave-faced rocking head 8 actuated by opposing toothed quadrants 9 and 10 and to which the book is carried by the oscillating head to have the back rounded, are all Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 22,1a16.

Serial No. 69,054.

operated and timed through proper connections with suitable cams on a drive-shaft 11, all substantially as set forth in the aforesaid Letters Patent.

The operator feeds the books to be backed, one at a time, on a table 12, between the rollers 4 and 5 and with its back presented thereto, while the roller 5 is in its raised position. The mechanism is so timed that the head 6 is at the end of its return-stroke wlth the gripping member 7 in raised posit1on to receive the book from the feed-rollers, between it and the upper end of the oscillating head, whereupon the member 7 descends to exert the gripping action. Then the head 6, through the medium of a toggle 13 connected with it and with a rigid crosspiece 14 of the machine-frame, and having suitable connections with a cam on the driveshaft, is swung through its advance stroke carrying the book along a curved guide 15, to present the book to the concave face of the head 8, then in position to receive it. W'ith' the book-back in that concave face, a cam on the drive-shaft rocks the quadrant 10, through its connections therewith, to rock the quadrant-carried head 8 and round the back of the book. The mechanism is timed to cause the swinging head 6 to remain at the end of its advance-stroke sufliciently long to retain the book-back in its position relative to the head 8 until the latter has been repeatedly rocked to adequately perform its work. I Thereupon the head 6 is caused to move through its return-stroke, wherein the jaw 7 is raised to free the book, which the operator then removes, while the parts are assuming their initial positions for receiving and acting on another book in the manner described.

The advance stroke of the head 6 is limited by straightening of the toggle 13, which produces meeting of the shoulders 13 shown on the adjacent ends of its members; and at the end of its return-stroke the oscillating head encounters one end of a rod 16 adjustably and rigidly supported to extend into its path.

The impact of the head 6 against the stoprod 16 at the end of its return-stroke and the jerk by which it is arrested at the end of its advance-stroke by straightening of the toggle 13, jars the machine with a degree of force which soon impairs its operation by disorganizing and wearing its working parts, unless the machine be worked much slower than its actual capacity would permit. To overcome this defect, I interpose a shock-absorber 18 between the head 6 and a rigid cross-piece 17 in the advance end of the machine-frame.

The shock-absorber is preferably of the variety illustrated, and of the following-described detailed construction: A hollow cylinder 19 has heads 20 and 21 onits opposite ends, each provided with a vent aperture 22 covered by an inwardly-opening flapvalve 23. A piston 24: Working in the cylinder has its stem 25 extending through a stuiiing-box on the head 22 and pivotally connected at its outer end with a central projection 26 on the oscillating head 6. A pipe 27 leading from the interior of the cylinder through its head 21 has a shut-off valve 28 on its outer end and contains an interposed T-coupling, with which is connected a safety-valve 29 adapted to open under a predetermined excessive degree of air-pressure in the cylinder. A lug 30 projects centrally from the head 20 between ears extending to embrace it on a plate 31 secured to the cross-bar 17, for pivoting the end of the cylinder by a bolt 32 passed horizontally through the ears and lug. On the head 20 are provided a shutoff valve 28 like the valve 28, and a safety-valve 29 like the safety-valve 29. The valves 28 and 28 may be set to produce any desired degree of pneumatic resistance for cushioning the back and forth movements of the piston in the cylinder, and the safety-valves are set to take care of any excess beyond the predetermined resistance and thus prevent in jury to the shock-absorber and machine from overpressure in the cylinder.

Equipped with the shock-absorber shown and described, the machine not only 0perates with comparatively little noise, but the head 6 may be oscillated and the cooperating mechanisms actuated at much faster speed, and thus more economically, because the shock absorber prevents disorganization and wear of the parts and increases the machines output, since the arrest of the head at opposite ends of its stroke is not attended with any jarring impact to produce such disorganization and wear. In fact, these machines, in the form in which they have heretofore been built and used without a shock-absorber, for more than twenty-five years past, within my own practical experience, have only about two-thirds of the capacity of those equipped with it, as is demonstrated in the establishment where a plurality of these machines are under my care, some still without and others provided with my improvement; the former being necessarily run at relatively low speed to avoid their rapid impairment, which is prevented by my shock-absorber in running the machine at high speed.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a machine for backing books, the combination with a book-feed, a movable head for working against a book back, and a second movable head operating between said feed and said book-back Working head, of a shock-absorber between said last referred-to head and the machine frame and operating to cushion said head.

2. In a machine for backing books, the combination with a book-feed, a rocking head for working against a book back, and an oscillating head operating between said feed and rocking head, of a shock-absorber between said last referred-to head and the machine frame and operating to cushion said head.

3. In a machine for backing books, the combination with a book-feed, a rocking head for working against a book-back, and an oscillating head operating between said feed and rocking-head, of a shock-absorberw comprising a movable member pivotally connected with said head and a fixed member pivotally connected with the machineframe, said shock-absorber operating to cushion said oscillating head.

A. C. FIsoHEn, C. C. BREUER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

